the Missoula Plan – $10 phone bill increase???

A plan has been released to raise the intercarrier compensation by a large group of state government and telecom providers. This will increase the fees of your phonebill by $3.50 per month per phone, and even up to $10 in four years.

The Intercarrier compensation is for carriers who pass calls from one netwrok to another carriers netwrok. The problem now is that with the increase in VoIP and cell phone calls the current system needs to be reformed, since these calls don’t have that charge.

Bad news is that the Missoula Plan (Missoula, AZ is where this was first discussed) consists of increasing the subscriber line charge on all US phone bills.

Fortunately there is some resistance to this plan:

“NARUC has not taken a position on the substance of the Missoula Plan,” said the joint statement. “While the undersigned organizations and entities may not agree on every aspect of intercarrier compensation reform, they oppose the Missoula Plan. The undersigned parties agree that the Missoula Plan does not serve the interests of consumers because it does not adequately address, and in many cases would exacerbate, problems with the current intercarrier compensation and universal service systems – e.g., uneconomic regulatory distinctions and incentives for inefficiency. The wide diversity of stakeholders listed below demonstrates that, as filed, the Missoula Plan is not the appropriate vehicle for reforming the intercarrier compensation system and should not serve as the framework for future discussions. We look forward to the opportunity to participate in the FCC process to develop a plan that results in pro-competitive, pro-consumer intercarrier compensation reform.”

Any comments?

Also see other posts about the Missoula Plan and see who is opposing or supporting, click here